The 1997-98 El Nino was, by some measures, the strongest on record, with major climatic impacts felt around the world. A newly completed tropical Pacific atmosphere-ocean observing system documented this El Nino from its rapid onset to its sudden demise in greater detail than was ever before possible. The unprecedented measurements challenge existing theories about El Nino-related climate swing...

The investigation of the effect of El Nino-related variability on hurricane activity has been a popular topic of study. Studies have shown that there are fewer Atlantic Ocean basin hurricanes during an El Nino year than during a La Nina year. Various atmospheric and oceanic parameters that influence hurricane development become significantly altered during an El Nino event, leading to suppresse...

The Southern Oscillation, a natural mode of oscillation of the coupled ocean-atmosphere system, at times appears to be self-sustaining and hence relatively easy to predict. The 1980s seem to have been such a period; El Nino of 1982183 was the start of two complete cycles of the Southern Oscillation. At other times the oscillation seems to be a damped mode that is present for a cycle at most, af...

T El Nino/Southern Oscillation phenomenon (ENSO, for short) is the strongest source of natural variability in Earth's climate system. ' Although ENSO originates in the tropical latitudes of the Pacific Ocean, its climatic impact is felt globally. Variations in major rainfall systems that are attributed to ENSO range from droughts in Indonesia and Australia to storms and flooding in Ecuador and ...

Three previously published proxy records of El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) variability were compared: a documentary record from coastal South America; an ice-core record from the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru; and a tree-ring record record from arid site conifers in the southwestern United States. The records were calibrated with long ENSO instrument records, and all the proxy records showed s...

Recent advances in observational and theoretical studies of El Nino have shed light on controversies concerning the possible effect of global warming on this phenomenon over the past few decades and in the future. El Nino is now understood to be one phase of a natural mode of oscillation-La Nina is the complementary phase-that results from unstable interactions between the tropical Pacific Ocea...

The Northern Indian Ocean is unique in the global ocean because of seasonal reversal of winds as well as surface ocean currents. In the southern part of the Indian Ocean, a significant ocean-atmospheric phenomenon developed just like an El Nino phenomenon noticed in the Pacific Ocean. This phenomenon is known as the Indian Ocean Dipole. In this study we investigate the relationship between IOD ...

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This study explains why a number of El Nino properties (period, amplitude, structure, and propagation) have changed in a coherent manner since the late 1970s and why these changes had almost concurred with the Pacific decadal climate shift. Evidence is presented to show that from the pre-shift (1961–1975) to the postshift (1981–1995) epoch, significant changes in the tropical Pacific are found ...

Climate change has been implicated in the success and downfall of several ancient civilizations. Here we present a synthesis of historical, climatic, and geological evidence that supports the hypothesis that climate change may have been responsible for the slow demise of Minoan civilization. Using proxy ENSO and precipitation reconstruction data in the period 1650–1980 we present empirical and ...